News & Updates

This week, the North Carolina Senate created the new Senate Select Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting to consider various options for how the state selects judges. The committee’s formation comes after the North Carolina legislature took several steps recently to shake up the state's judicial system. Back in March, the legislature voted to override the governor’s veto of House Bill 100, which requires North Carolina Superior Court and District Court judges to identify their party affiliation on ballots. Proponents of the bill say voters want to know everything they can about judicial candidates when they vote. Opponents, like the governor, argue the bill politicizes the courts.

The house of representatives approved with a 78-14 vote a proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the process for selecting Tennessee’s appellate judges. The senate approved the measure 29-2 in February. The legislature also approved the proposal in 2012, so it will be on the ballot in 2014.

“The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2009-10,” by the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, is released as the presidential race is heating up -- with…

In July 2016, IAALS published Foundations for Practice: The Whole Lawyer and the Character Quotient, which shared findings from a survey that asked more than 24,000 lawyers what new lawyers need as they enter the profession. In the survey, we also collected from respondents ten demographic and practice-specific characteristics. We thought we might observe interesting, informative, and actionable differences across these demographics and characteristics. However, as we conducted analysis of the survey data for our reports, it became clear that our expectation was misplaced.

A group of Republican members of the house of representatives have proposed cutting the pay of the four remaining Iowa Supreme Court justices who participated in Varnum v. Brien, a unanimous 2009 ruling that struck down a state law banning same-sex marriages.

President Obama’s efforts to fill judicial vacancies have been complicated by the American Bar Association’s ratings of potential nominees. The ABA’s judicial vetting committee has rated 14 of 185 potential nominees as “not qualified,” and the administration has a policy of not nominating such candidates.

Public trust and confidence in our judiciary, and our judges, is vital. Yet, over the last several decades, that trust has been eroded. For people to trust judges again, we must ensure a series of pillars are in place: improved ways of selecting judges; improved ways of evaluating judges’ performance; and improved systems for disciplining judges who abuse their power—which is the subject of a new IAALS report.

Increasingly, law firms, corporate employers, public interest organizations, government entities, and other organizations that employ lawyers are relying on core competencies when hiring, assessing, and promoting new lawyers. We want to better understand how the legal profession defines entry-level core competencies. Do you and your organization use core competencies for entry-level lawyers? Are you willing to share them?

A state court judge ruled that the governor must disclose the names of nominees submitted by the judicial selection commission. Unlike his predecessors, the governor had refused to make the names public because he feared it would deter attorneys from applying for judgeships if the names were disclosed.

The family justice system was built on the assumption that litigants would be represented by lawyers, but that assumption no longer holds true. It is no secret among lawyers, court staff, and judges—if not the general population itself—that more and more people are representing themselves through their divorce process, instead of hiring an attorney.

The North Carolina legislature sent to Governor McCrory for approval a bill that would revamp the state's elections, including eliminating public financing for appellate judicial elections. Created in 2002 by the Judicial Campaign Reform Act, the so-called "Voter-Owned Elections" program allowed candidates with qualifying contributions to receive a public grant to finance their campaigns and eliminated the need to seek campaign support from attorneys and others who may later appear before them in court.

A recent grand jury report included testimony from a witness who claimed that supreme court justice Joan Orie Melvin used her office and her staff in past judicial campaigns. The grand jury was investigating allegations that Orie Melvin’s sisters—one a state senator and the other a former aide to Orie Melvin—used state-paid staff to perform campaign work.

The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP), recently announced the launch of their rebranded blog, “The Access Revolution Blog: Dispatches from the Frontlines.” The goal of the blog is to serve as a collaborative platform, breaking down the disconnect between users of the court and legal stakeholders, and to offer practical solutions to address the access to justice problem in Canada. 

The ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education has released its draft report, which includes proposals and conclusions about the pricing structure of law schools, liberalizing or eliminating accreditation certain standards, speeding the pace of innovation and practical skills training, and using non-lawyers for broader delivery of law-related services. Chair Randall T. Shepard will present the Task Force's proposals to more than 80 legal educators at the 2nd Annual Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Conference in Denver on October 4.

The January 2012 edition of Selection Snapshots is now available.

​In June, the National Center for States Courts released the second in a series of evaluations of civil justice reform demonstration pilot projects around the country. The report details efforts in the 22nd Judicial Circuit of Illinois, located in McHenry County, where the pilot primarily focused on implementing civil case management teams, tools, technology, and the pathways approach.

Appellate judges in 38 states stand for election. But how much do we know about them? Are they fair? Do they write opinions that parties can understand? Are they doing a good job? With only a fraction of states providing such information about appellate judges, very few voters have what they need to make an informed and responsible decision at the ballot box. We at IAALS are working to change that with our newest publication.

After a standoff over judicial appointments brought senate business to a halt, lieutenant governor and 2013 gubernatorial candidate Bill Bolling called for the creation of a bipartisan judicial selection commission. (Virginia is one of two states where the legislature appoints judges.) As a result of the November 2011 elections, the senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

Small and mid-size business owners struggle with access to justice issues just as individuals do, with real ramifications for their businesses and their communities. Through the US Justice Needs project, IAALS will be surveying businesses, from small to large, so that we can better understand justice needs from their perspective. 

IAALS is happy to welcome Colorado Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janice B. Davidson (Ret.) as she takes on her role as Senior Advisor at IAALS. Chief Judge Davidson will be involved with all of IAALS’ initiatives to some extent, but will focus her time primarily on the Quality Judges Initiative, beginning in January 2014.